With a C permit, in Switzerland you pay tax just as you would in any other country: you receive a tax return, fill it in, and work out how much you owe. With a B permit, it’s different. Your employer deducts tax directly from your salary each month, via the ‘impôt à la source’ (Quellensteuer in German), and pays it to the cantonal tax authority. You don’t have to do anything. The system seems convenient, and it is. The problem is that this automatic calculation uses standard rates which do not always reflect your actual circumstances.
If you have dependent children, if you pay child maintenance, if you have vocational training expenses, if you contribute to a third-pillar pension scheme, or simply if the tax scale applied was incorrect, you may have paid more than you should have. Since 2021, federal legislation has simplified the correction procedure. There are two options: one for technical errors in the calculation, with the usual deadline of 31 March of the following year; and another, more comprehensive option, for situations where your personal circumstances require you to file an ordinary tax return even if you hold a B permit. This is known as ‘taxation ordinaire ultérieure’ and allows you to claim deductions not covered by the standard tax scale.
What varies from canton to canton is how this is handled in practice. Geneva, Vaud, Zurich, Bern and Valais have their own forms and online portals for requesting a correction. Some cantons process requests online, others by post. If you have moved to a different canton during the year, you will need to submit a request to both. Official information can be found at estv.admin.ch and on the website of each canton’s tax authority.
What nobody tells you is that you have to take the initiative yourself. The tax authorities won’t let you know if you’ve overpaid. People only realise this later, either by asking in the group or after speaking to a tax adviser.